Electric co-op leaders are discussing how to smartly capture the opportunity to serve data centers and other large loads at NRECA’s 2025 Regional Meetings.

Co-ops and their boards should educate themselves on these types of loads and make sure their contracts adequately protect consumer-members, panelists say.

The conversations are being held as in-person versions of NRECA’s Governance Talk series and will be repeated at each Regional Meeting this year.

Data centers—energy-intensive facilities that store and process digital information—are “a really tremendous part of Virginia's economic growth,” Rappahannock Electric Cooperative CEO John Hewa said.

The facilities “are moving rapidly into our new core business,” Hewa said Sept. 5 at the Regions 1&4 Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. “It may not ever be our traditional business, but it's moved into the core.”

Other types of large loads are also creating new business for co-ops.

Hampton, Iowa-based Franklin Rural Electric Cooperative serves two bitcoin mining operations. The co-op took added steps to guard legacy consumer-members from potential cost increases or service impacts, but Franklin REC leaders were positive about their experiences.

“Be open to the crypto. Work with them. They’re just like regular people,” CEO Garrett Thompson said at the Regions 5&6 Meeting in Madison, Wisconsin.

Protecting members

Rappahannock Electric is based in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and serves a large part of the state’s growing innovation hub. Nearby Northern Virginia is home to around 270 data centers. The co-op is working to serve an emerging wave of about 20 of those centers, an opportunity Hewa said they approached carefully to ensure reliable and affordable service for REC’s roughly 180,000 traditional consumer-members.

Rappahannock Electric created a separate affiliate to serve large-scale data centers in the region to insulate existing members from the associated costs and risks.

“Our goal here is to separate out that volatility and protect REC's balance sheet from any type of default or concern that may occur there,” Hewa said.

For Franklin REC, one of the cryptocurrency operations it serves is located near a co-op solar field and required only a simple infrastructure buildout to serve, Thompson said.

But the other facility required more substantial investment, causing the distribution co-op to draw up contracts and consult early on with its generation and transmission co-op, Corn Belt Power Cooperative in Humboldt, Iowa, to ensure it could handle the large load.

Franklin REC updated its line extension policy, which determines the costs and conditions for extending service to a new member. It substantially raised its cost-per-foot for underground and overhead lines given the crypto load’s need for heavier wire and more poles to support the added weight.

Franklin REC also required the crypto load to pay 100% of the needed infrastructure build-out.

In addition, the co-op stipulated that the customer could not pay Franklin REC in bitcoin and included a requirement that the cryptocurrency operation shut down if there’s an energy emergency in the Southwest Power Pool.

“You don’t want to put your members’ money at risk for something that could leave … and you’re left holding the bag,” Franklin REC President Gordon Greimann said.

Getting educated

Both co-ops closely coordinated with their power suppliers to make informed decisions around serving large loads.

Rappahannock Electric’s board has helped bring in advisers and consultants, legal resources and skilled staff, Hewa said. Its leadership team also put on workshops that explored the risks and rewards of large loads.

“We understood that there's a very significant challenge here,” Board Chair Christopher Shipe explained. “There was a lot of risk involved. We can't say no when these loads show up on our system. But there's a tremendous opportunity to show some benefits.”

Shipe also recommended building coalitions with state regulators and legislators and making sure that the co-op hires the right people.

“As a board, I think allocating resources from a budget standpoint and from a strategic standpoint is probably one of the most critical things we do,” he said. “And you need to not be afraid to allocate good resources to make sure you can properly serve this kind of load.”

Franklin REC’s Greimann said directors must get informed on the large load types they could serve, with some board members initially unfamiliar with cryptocurrency.

“We had some directors that were familiar with bitcoin and mining … and others that [said], ‘Where is this bitcoin, and where can I dig it up in my field?’” Greimann joked.

“Just get yourself up to date,” he added. “Take a look at those policies and bylaws and talk to other co-ops.”

Shipe also advised co-ops to learn from each other.

“There are other co-ops that have faced similar challenges or similar issues, maybe not quite to the scale, but talk to each other,” Shipe advised. “And that's the beautiful part about the cooperative.”

View NRECA's growing collection of information and resources on serving large loads and data centers.